Biathlon IBU World Cup 2023 - 2024

[OlympicsFan 860]

Is there a reason why the world championships "have to" take place "in the middle" of the season? Why can't the world championships be the last competition of the season?

 

Also: For me Antholz or Hochfilzen are much better stages than Oberhof (Oberhof usually doesn't really feel like a "natural" place to host a winter sport competition), so personally i would have no problem if IBU would get rid of at least one german stage, but i absolutely don't see them doing that, given that Germany is the biggest market. Maybe climate change will make it impossible to host those competitions in Germany in the future, so IBU will have no choice. Personally i think that it is borderline insane to continually host winter sport competitions in places without natural snow.

Edited January 6, 2024 by OlympicsFan

[heywoodu 16,458]

12 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

I’ve said it before, but if an IF’s main competition tour is only going to be in one continent (Europe or Asia in most cases), then they shouldn’t be allowed to use the term “World Cup.”

 

European teams/athletes/fans always complain about competitions outside Europe, but just imagine how athletes from Pan America, Africa, Asia, or Oceania feel.

Whoever organizes it can use whichever name they want, more or less. Just like the MLB has, ridiculously enough, a (basically) national championship final that's actually called and marketed as 'World Series'. Which basically everyone outside of the US agrees with is just nonsense, but also...why care?

 

I am definitely in favour of having a few North American stops every now and then (not every season, since it's just too small for that), and in cross-country skiing perhaps even every season assuming the hype about Minneapolis lives up to the expectations. As for Asia....yeah, that's going to be difficult. It'd be good to go there sometimes, but biathlon is just entirely empty there (the horror Pyeongchang world championships are still in mind), maybe cross-country skiing would attract at least something if they go there once every few years.

[Biathlonfan 831]

Yay,Strolia even with 3 misses managed to make up 8 places and get a world cup point,even getting Hofer on the last lap,yep his speed is coming back at the right time.

[OlympicsFan 860]

Complete domination by Norway once again, their skiing speed is just superior. Even someone like Botn can come out of nowhere and put up the fastest skiing time right after moving up from the IBU Cup. With the abundance of talent in cross-country skiing i don't really see an end to their domination. I guess all biathlon fans should be thankful that FIS doesn't reduce the number of norwegians that are allowed to compete in the cross-country skiing world cup, otherwise their dominance in biathlon would probably become even more absurd. I wonder what would happen if countries like France, Sweden or Germany would completely focus on biathlon and give up on their men's cross-country skiing, maybe then the norwegian dominance in biathlon could be broken.

[heywoodu 16,458]

-7 and strong wind in Oberhof, the men's lottery relay is about to start  

[Gianlu33 5,974]

Ahhh, Oberhof. Always Oberhof wind and fog 

[heywoodu 16,458]

2 minutes ago, Gianlu33 said:

Ahhh, Oberhof. Always Oberhof wind and fog 

At least now it's actually wintery  

[heywoodu 16,458]

Super veteran Tarjei of all people was too late for the exchange  

[Swewi 504]

Sweden (without Hanna Öberg) and Germany almost perfect relays, still beaten by France (without Chevalier Bouchet)

 

But most chocking - Norway 10th!

[OlympicsFan 860]

10 minutes ago, Swewi said:

Sweden (without Hanna Öberg) and Germany almost perfect relays, still beaten by France (without Chevalier Bouchet)

 

But most chocking - Norway 10th!

Most chocking or most shocking?

Germany also competed without Voigt + this week will show if Hettich-Walz is really better than Tannheimer.